Newly Discovered OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb Brown Dwarf or Large Planet

Posted on November 13, 2017

Is the newly discovered ‘OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb’ a brown dwarf or a super large planet? Scientists still don’t know.

The newly discovered ‘OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb’, is more than 13 times bigger than Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet. It is so big, astronomers don’t know whether it passes for planet or brown dwarf.

Due to its large size, some theories believe OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb to be a brown dwarf, also known as a failed star. Despite being large enough to generate heat, brown dwarfs are not big enough to maintain the nuclear fusion it takes to be a star.